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If you’re at the point in life where you have more athletic clothing than night-on-the-town attire (or the male equivalent: an SUV in lieu of your souped-up, kit enhanced Honda), then you likely remember themovie with a cute, little fairy named “Krista” who saved the last Rainforest.

This adorable, yet fierce, young fairy spends most of the movie moseying about an enchanted-like forest as a tour guide to her shrunken protégée, Zak the tree-killer.

Zak grows the same appreciation for the forest that we do as the movie progresses. The producers did a fabulous job of showing the natural wonders of the Rainforest while adding just the right touch of magic.

They made us fall in love with that forest!

… only to see it burning to the ground at the hands of Zak’s evil, tree-chopping bosses.

The pinnacle of drama came about when Hexxus (the super-demon trapped in a large tree) was released due to poor tree marking. Hexxus set about destroying what was left of the rainforest, including the fairies who were looking after it.

Krista held the only hope for survival.

As a child, I sat holding back tears as I watched little heroine fairy throw herself into Hexxus’s mouth, carrying only a “single, tiny seed” as her weapon. My sadness rapidly gave way to joy as the branches of a new, more glorious tree began to grow from within the very thing that was supposed to end it all.

Whipping sounds still ring in my ears as I recall the roots lashing out and planting into the ground. A massive trunk emerged, encasing Hexxus and closing him in until nothing was left but his eyes and then…

POOF! Nothing.

The last of Him went up in a puff of smoke.

The new tree began to produce limbs. Magnificent buds popped up and opened all accompanied by lush green leaves. It was breathtaking! When I thought all of the flowers had bloomed, one more opened… and in it was Krista!

I’m listening to Pandora and a beautiful song comes on. Just instruments. I smile. Out loud I say to myself, “why does this make me so happy?!”

Turns out it was the song that played during the scene tree grew at the end of Ferngully! It’s incredible how our brains retain such associations! (Though sometimes not so much)

Anyhow, I immediately started wondering why the movie touched me in such a deep and memorable way.

The answer is truth.

Anytime a story touches our heart it is because there is a divine and eternal truth within that story, whether we recognize it or not.

Somewhere deep within, I needed to believe that the most horrible part of me was able to be redeemed. I was like that tree which held Hexxus. No one wanted to touch it, not even to chop it down for fear of releasing the darkness. I was untouchable and evil…

I sought the Lord and found Him. I realized the gravity of what He had done for me. I was given a gift of faith to believe, with all of my being, that He had sacrificed Himself. He abandoned Himself, by choice, to the darkness of this world. He was believed by many to have met death once and for all as He hung lifeless on a cross.

The wait of three days was long enough for hope to fade as He lie in a tomb. (It can feel as though you are in that tomb yourself when you are without faith.) A Savior lost to the darkness while trying to redeem me from the very thing nobody else wanted to touch.

My sin. That ugly word we despise.

Even I didn’t want to touch it. I didn’t want to acknowledge it. But the day that I did, was the day I realized how desperately I need a savior and how beautiful He truly is.

Confessing my destitution primed the way for the gift of faith God had wanted to give me all along.

Like an eight-year-old child watching a happily-ever-after ending, I sat crying with an overwhelming joy that was etched so deep within my heart that nothing could ever remove it… and everything would remind me of it;

I have been given a gift that my finite hands cannot hold, so I must share it. If you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, I invite you to explore who He is through scripture.

You are not alone on this journey.

Reach out. Shoot me an email. I will take personal responsibility for helping answer your questions and leading you deeper in faith. Of course, I’ll be praying for you along the way as well.

Give it a shot. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. May your eyes be opened to Truth wherever it can be found, even in the simple things like childhood movies. God will be a light to your path as you seek Him earnestly.